claim according to which REGNUM had been designed as a tool in Russia's state propaganda machine operating under direction of Modest Kolerov, at the time the head of an agency within President Vladimir Putin's administration. The claim stated that in essence, REGNUM is not a news outlet as it presents itself, but an umbrella for Russia's secret services operations in countries of the so-called "near abroad", which efforts are directed to promoting Russia's geopolitical agenda. As Russia's foreign policy tool REGNUM has been instrumental in encouraging opposition to energy independence plans in the Baltic states, contributing to the negative popular vote on the question of a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania. Since 2011, the agency has become unpopular in Turkmenistan. In a report circulated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, Turkmen diplomats repeatedly expressed their dislike of the agency, claiming that it systematically disseminates inaccurate, biased information about their country. In December 2016, three REGNUM journalists were arrested in Belarus, accused of "inciting enmity between the Belarusian and Russian peoples", extremism, negative assessments of the Belarusization policy pursued by Alexander Lukashenko's government. Citizens of Belarus Dmitry Alimkin, Yury Pavlovets and Sergey Shiptenko spent 14 months in pre-trial detention center No. 1. In February 2018, they were sentenced to five years in prison under Part 3 of Art. 130 of the Criminal Code of Belarus, "Extremism" with a three-year suspension of sentence and a ban on leaving Belarus. Awards In 2006, REGNUM was awarded the National Prize of Russia "Runet Prize". In 2008, REGNUM was awarded the "Media-Peacemaker-2008" of the Guild of Interethnic Journalism in the category "Internet". Notes References External links ; English REGNUM-VolgaInform (Samara, Cheboksary) REGNUM-Baltica (Saint Petersburg) REGNUM-Arkhangelskiye Novosti (Arkhangelsk) REGNUM-MurmanNews (Murmansk) REGNUM-MariNews (Yoshkar-Ola) SeverInform (Vologda) REGNUM-Altai (Barnaul) REGNUM-Primorie (Vladivostok) 2002 establishments in Russia News agencies based in Russia Publications established in 2002 Russian news websites